Tulsa's infill is kind of a different character. Lots of loft and rowhouse developments going on particularly in the Cherry Street area over the last 4 years or so. For OKC, historic renovations and new loft construction, in addition to all the new public facilities downtown, have been going on at a strong clip for nearly a decade. So Tulsa is just chronologically behind OKC- maybe give them five more years- as more people start going to the BOK Center and not being afraid of downtown the city will be in a much more exciting place!

I've not heard any new news on Devon, but the CEO of the company Larry Nichols recently did an interview about the tower with News 9:

Tulsa was a tad overbuilt. Of course if we get some more significant developments going on around the BOk Center we may in the future see a residential mid rise or hotel. But don't count on it too soon. The only thing that has any steam, hardly, is a new downtown hotel by the BOk Center. And we've all seen how that has gone.

__________________Farewell Texas Stadium
1971-2008

Principle 27: The burden of debt is as destructive to freedom as subjugation by conquest.
-28 Principles of Freedom

"Political correctness does not legislate tolerance; it only organizes hatred."
-Jacques Barzun

So Q3 2008 was a $2.6 billion profit, Q4 2008 is a $6.8 billion loss. Devon says the loss is a product of an accounting rule that will no longer be in effect for 2009. Most importantly, the loss will NOT alter plans for the Devon Tower.

-------

Devon Energy reports record loss
BY RANDY ELLIS
newsok.com

Published: February 4, 2009

Oklahoma City-based Devon Energy Corp. today reported a record $6.8 billion loss for the fourth quarter of 2008 — a sudden turn of events since the company reported a record $2.6 billion profit the previous quarter.

The $6.8 billion quarterly loss amounted to $15.42 per common share. For the year, Devon lost $2.1billion, or $4.85 a share. That was also a record.

Devon stock was trading down more than 5 percent in mid-morning trading as financial results did not meet analysts expectations.

The dramatic reversal at Devon is not the result of any major change in the way the company does business, said Vince White, Devon's senior vice president of investor relations. Instead, he said it is a reflection of oil prices that plunged from about $140 a barrel in mid-2008 to about $40 a barrel at the end of the year.

Securities and Exchange Commission rules required the company to value its oil and natural gas properties based on oil and gas prices on Dec. 31, resulting in a $7.1 billion non-cash charge, White said.

Accounting rules will change next year so that oil and gas properties will be valued at average prices throughout the year. Had those rules been in effect this year, Devon would not have had a loss, he said.

Devon, Oklahoma's largest publicly traded company, has more than $3 billion in cash and unused credit lines and the non-cash charge does not impact the company's cash flow, cash position or access to credit lines, he said.

“It does not change the value of what we own at all,” White said. “It is purely an artifact of accounting.”

J. Larry Nichols, Devon's chairman and chief executive officer, was similarly optimistic about the company's underlying performance last year and its prospects for the future.

“Despite the effects of the sharp fourth-quarter declines in oil and natural gas prices, 2008 was a very successful year for the company,” Nichols said. “Cash flow reached an all-time record of nearly $10 billion. We increased oil and gas production by six percent and drilled 2,441 wells with a 98 percent success rate. In addition, we added 584 million barrels of proved reserves before price revisions at a very attractive cost per barrel.”

White said the loss does not alter Devon's plans to build a new office skyscraper in downtown Oklahoma City.

“We will need this building to accommodate our future growth,” he said.

I love it now lets building it in new york just joking or am I. And talk about big cities with a small skyline. You should see columbus ohio 15 largest city in the U.S and our tallest buildings a little over 300 feet now thats sad.

This is a beautiful building! I was voted biggest Sonics fan in Seattle by FSN but I haven't let that cloud my perception of your city. It looks like there's a lot going on worth getting excited about in OKC.

btw, here's a blog on my ESPN about the relocation and our 2 fan bases.

This is a beautiful building! I was voted biggest Sonics fan in Seattle by FSN but I haven't let that cloud my perception of your city. It looks like there's a lot going on worth getting excited about in OKC.

btw, here's a blog on my ESPN about the relocation and our 2 fan bases.

This is a beautiful building! I was voted biggest Sonics fan in Seattle by FSN but I haven't let that cloud my perception of your city. It looks like there's a lot going on worth getting excited about in OKC.

btw, here's a blog on my ESPN about the relocation and our 2 fan bases.

So this project is a go? What kind of impact will it have on downtown office space?

What kind of major projects have been proposed for OKC but never made it? It always interests me.

Pre-construction has already started, preparing a loading dock or something that will be used during the construction of the parking garage- so it's a go.

Currently the downtown occupancy rate is around 75-80%, depending on who you ask. Most people involved with leasing office space say there is hardly any contiguous, Class A office space for expanding/relocating companies. Devon will leave a ton of office space spread over five buildings when they move to their new building (which will NOT have leasable space). There are other companies within the city and reportedly outside of the city who are sort of waiting with baited breath for the large chunks of quality space to become available when Devon moves to its new building.

Your second question interests me too- I always like seeing the past of what was proposed and what never came to be. In OKC, there is actually a pretty long list of things that were cancelled during the oil bust and bank collapses in Oklahoma City in the early 80s.

Here are some of the cancelled buildings from the days when money was flowing in OKC even more than it does today:

Leadership Square, below, was originally designed to be 60 stories and was broken into two smaller towers.

Before that, architect I.M. Pei drew up some grand plans for a modern downtown for Urban Renewal. They demolished all of the downtown retail core and hundreds of historic structures including theaters, apartments, and hotels to make room for grand new plans. Only a tiny fraction of the plans were realized, as the oil bust also cut those plans short. But without Pei's demolition derby, the site of the Devon Tower would not be vacant- so we have that dark time to thank for Devon's location.